Back Alley Sinners
by MindBottled
Summary: Feeling betrayed can often lead to some rather impetuous decisions.


**Back Alley Sinners**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any part of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Those rights belong to Lisa Schulyer, Yan Moore, and Epitome Pictures.

**Author's Note: **This is supposed to be set sometime after Umbrella, Part One. It's probably a little OOC(hopefully not exceedingly so), but I digress. Enjoy!

**Pairing: **Owen/Clare

* * *

To the ordinary passerby, the idea of Clare Edwards awaiting Owen Milligan was unfathomable, if not a sure sign that they had become mentally unhinged. To Clare, meeting up with Owen was simply a means to an end.

Clare stomped her foot down, in a futile attempt to draw some warmth around her. Meeting behind the cafeteria was not an ideal by any standards, certainly not something she wanted to pursue regularly, but anywhere else was either locked off or heavily populated. Just because she was seeing him did not mean whatever their transgressions were, if there were any at all, were privy to the entire school. In fact, she wasn't even certain if _she _wanted to know what she was about to do, but that bridge had already been burned. This ultimately had been her decision and like it or not, she was determined to see it through.

The sound of crunching gravel alerted her to his prescience, her stomach doing nervous cartwheels with his every step. His breaths came out as a lusty mixture of curiosity and appetite, as did his gaze, which currently was roving over her as though she were some great boon that had fallen into his clutches. The gazelle had invited the lion over for dinner, how did it expect it to react? He took another step towards her, causing her to shirk back, cotton colliding with brick.

"I love Eli." the words tumbled out of her mouth, unbidden and undesired yet true all the same. Yes, she did love him. Then again, she thought she loved K.C. too and look what that had brought her- misery and embitterment. Still, she was willing to take the plunge for Eli, remove all her barricades and let him in, close enough to either damage or save her frail heart. She supposed his rejection was inevitable, really.

"You love Eli." he echoed in a sing-song voice, his taunts like razors under her skin.

She narrowed her eyes at him, her face twisted into a decidedly unflattering pout, his smug expression growing that much wider from her reaction. She felt raw and aggravated in his prescience, like a child who knows they've done wrong but is too stubborn to admit it.

Part of her wondered if this was how Alli felt after she made her catastrophic decision to go into the boiler room, the other trying to banish such thoughts from existence. Though this was as equally rash and abrupt as her friend's choice, vengeance was the last thing she was seeking, she simply wanted… validation. The difference was blatantly obvious, wasn't it?

She winced when the brick bit into her back again, his calloused hands firm on her shoulders like iron dinging porcelain, not forceful enough to break it but enough to remind it of it's prescience. This was no longer a theory or an idea, this was all too real.

"You don't do this to people you love." Again, her mouth worked out the words before she could process them. Her statement was again, true, perhaps moreso than her previous one. Her mother thought she was ignorant of her tryst, that she couldn't piece together the lies, like the quickly erased messages or long nights away from home. She knew, she knew far too much as always, but turning a blind eye to the affair was all she could do to cope. But this was different than what was happening with her parents, she was different. Her belief in this was beginning to ebb, each moment spent in Owen's prescience drawing her further and further away.

He paused, the predatory glint in his eyes waning and being replaced with something far too pensive for her liking. For all his cruelty, for how brash he often times was, Clare forgot Owen was just as much human as she was. Something, someone molded him into this, for she refused to believe anyone could ever truly be as aloof and ill-tempered as he seemed. But what? She wasn't certain if she wanted to know at the moment. It was better, this was better if he remained a separate entity, the guy who hooked up with girls in the blink of an eye simply because he could. She knew it was selfish but acknowledging his humanity made hers seem waning, a thought that was altogether disconcerting.

"Sometimes people love too much." His voice seemed far off, miles away from her fluttering heartbeat, pulling her out of her stupor.

_Sometimes people love too much._

She didn't have a chance to ponder this logic before his lips locked onto hers, the alacrity and fervor in which he moved astonishing, if not frightening her. His hands groped almost desperately for her waist, pushing her tightly against him, until he was almost crushing her body into his. She felt as though he were trying to consume her, his lips, his prescience, smothering out her own. It was as though he were trying to shed away his pain by devouring her own, though his actions only seemed to intensify her own inner turmoil.

Even if Eli didn't want her, even if no one ever truly wanted her, being alone was better than _this_.

She wrenched her arms loose of his embrace, before ripping her lips away from his, attempting to ignore how much they stung. They were most likely swollen, a testament to her misdeed and his venture. Her rebuke seemed to stun him, his expression falling flat, a blank slate of emotion. If she scratched through the surface, she might have seen the remnants of his own pain seeping through, before it was quickly masked away with scorn.

"You came looking for me Edwards, not the other way around."

"And I shouldn't have." she answered firmly, her eyes steely in comparison to his furious smolder.

She pushed past him, not even sparing him a parting glance, retreating back into the familiar confines of the school.

This was her decision.


End file.
